GOD LEAVES THE LIGHT ON (1 OF 5)

The most common form of bondage is unforgiveness. If you have an unforgiving spirit toward anyone you put yourself in bondage to them and that spirit of unforgiveness. If you sense that someone has an unforgiving spirit toward you and you don't respond properly, you place yourself in bondage.

But the worst form of bondage, them most subtle form of bondage is that which results from wrong ideas and perceptions about God and his attitude and demeanor toward us when we sin. And so many people don't have any real assurance that God HAS forgiven them or that God WILL forgive them. And that feeling comes a feeling of rejection and condemnation from God.

So I want to ask you: What kind of picture do you have in your mind of God? Do you see him as an angry, bitter old man who barely tolerates you? Do you sort of have the idea that God just sits shaming and condemning you, just waiting until he can give you the punishment that you deserve? If so, you are going to continually struggle with the bondage that brings. There will be a distinct absence of joy and confidence in your life. And besides that, if God is anything like that, who would want to know him or even try to get close to him? With a picture of God such as that, there is nothing that would motivate you to want to come to him and ask forgiveness.

So many people have a religiously distorted view of God's attitude toward sinners. The people of Jesus' day had the same wrong perceptions. The Jewish people of Jesus' day started out with the right idea about a clear understanding of the holiness of God. That is, they understood that God was so holy, he could never tolerate sin. So they took that idea, connected it with the Ten Commandments and then developed a system to rate where people stood with God based on their sin. And so, the worse the sin, the less acceptable the person was to God; as time went on, this thinking deve ...

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